Ashish Dhawan takes an interest in financial stocks, while potentially divesting from 2 tech firms

Ace investor Ashish Dhawan recently made some changes to his portfolio. He added Religare Enterprises to his holdings in the quarter ended June 2023, while potentially exiting two other companies – Birlasoft and Zensar Technologies.

In Religare Enterprises, Dhawan acquired a 1.66% stake. This company is a diversified financial services group that offers various services such as loans to SMEs, affordable housing finance, health insurance, and retail broking. The value of Dhawan’s holding in Religare Enterprises is Rs 94.3 crore, according to Trendlyne data.

Over the past 12 months, the stock has provided a 32% return, which outperforms the Nifty50’s 13% return during the same period.

Meanwhile, Dhawan reduced his stake in Birlasoft from 1.01% in the previous quarter to an undisclosed amount in the recent quarter. Birlasoft has a market capitalisation of Rs 11,969.48 crore and has seen a 45% increase in its stock price year-to-date.

Dhawan’s stake in Zensar Technologies also decreased from 1.06% in the previous quarter to below 1% in the recent quarter. Zensar Technologies is a technology solutions provider headquartered in Pune and is part of the $4.4 billion RPG Group. The company, which has been publicly listed for over five decades, offers its services in manufacturing, banking & financials, insurance, and retail sectors.

The decision to sell the stake in Zensar Technologies comes after the stock provided significant returns in the last six months, with a 106% return year-to-date.

According to the latest corporate shareholdings filed on BSE, Dhawan’s publicly held portfolio includes 12 stocks with a net worth of Rs 3,130.3 crore. Some of the stocks in his portfolio are Dish TV India, Glenmark Pharmaceuticals, IDFC, Quess Corp, and Arvind Fashions.